South Korean Department Store Collapses, Killing at least 113

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Heartened by shouts from the wreckage, rescue workers dug into the smoky ruins of a five-story mall today, seeking survivors of a collapse that killed at least 113 people and injured more than 910. About 170 people were missing.

Searchers were forced to halt their efforts for long stretches overnight as debris shifted in the Sampoong Department Store complex, which collapsed about 6 P.M. on Thursday. Acrid smoke billowed from a fire fed by gasoline from crushed cars in an parking lot.

More than 16 hours after the disaster, two women were rescued from an area beneath an elevator shaft where most of the survivors were thought to be trapped. One woman staggered out with assistance; the other was carried out and died en route to the hospital.

Rescue workers handed bottled water down the shaft to the survivors. The police said they had heard enough cries for help to estimate that 30 or more people were clinging to life in the rubble.

A shout from a basement pleaded for help for three survivors. Another voice drifted out from a heavily damaged wing, claiming 5 to 10 people were alive there. Exhausted but elated, the workers scurried back.

The rescue operation, televised live nationwide, left Koreans anguished over yet another tragedy attributed to slipshod construction and poor government oversight. "Endless Disaster, Disaster, Disaster," one newspaper headline declared.

Two deadly gas explosions in the past six months killed 113 people, and a bridge collapse in Seoul last October killed 32.

"We will have to consider the root of why such accidents occur," said Prime Minister Lee Hong Koo, who visited the site, in a well-to-do residential neighborhood in southern Seoul. Some 40,000 people shop daily at the complex.

The Government promised to do all it could to punish those responsible for the disaster.

The police said the operators of the bright pink complex had apparently known for hours that the top floor, which housed a food court, was crumbling, but had failed to warn anyone.

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About 1,500 rescue workers, 500 firefighters and hundreds of volunteers were at the scene. The United States Army, which has 37,000 troops in South Korea, was sending rescue equipment from Hawaii.

Fifteen cranes lifted out huge slabs of concrete, but rescue workers complained they did not have enough equipment to cut through the tangle of concrete and steel.

At one point on Thursday, Mayor Choi Byung Yol ordered workers to leave the complex, even though they still could hear moans from survivors. A lone remaining wall and another part of the complex was in danger of collapsing.

Han Jung Suk, blood on his face, told KBS-TV he was among several dozen people in the store lobby about 6 P.M. Thursday. "I felt the building wavering, and moments later, several store employees rushed down from upper floors," he said.

Witnesses described how the collapse occurred from the top down. One motorist said the street was showered with goods and shoppers' purses.

Many of the casualties were women: sales clerks and housewives who had gone to the basement because the food department lowered prices on perishables in the late afternoon.

Kim So Jung, owner of one of the restaurants on the top floor, told MBC-TV that part of his floor and roof fell in on Thursday morning. Two adjacent restaurants experienced similar problems, Mr. Kim said. A department store official came up twice to check the problem, but told other shops to remain open.

A version of this article appears in print on June 30, 1995, on Page A00005 of the National edition with the headline: South Korean Department Store Collapses, Killing at least 113. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe